Bring You Back To Love
by piratewench78
Summary: It's been fifteen years since the Rolling Stone article. Fifteen years since Rayna walked away. Now Maddie's getting married and she wants her parents together for the wedding. Can they figure out how to get past all the pain and hurt and isolation in time? Future fic. Very AU.
1. Chapter 1

_We can all be scared to death / Never certain of what it is we want / All the fears we should confess / Holding our breath just dying to speak up_

 **Maddie**

The night Maddie Jaymes got engaged was a turning point. She had waited a long time for the right guy, been hurt in relationships too many times before, because she'd go all in too quickly, and then realize too late that that particular guy couldn't give her what she needed. Sometimes she blamed her parents for that. They'd had this long and storied love affair that had resulted in her very existence. She'd heard all the stories and she had often thought of herself as being so like her mom that she too would have that grand, all-consuming love affair. Except that hers wouldn't burn so hot that they couldn't stand near the flame. But that hadn't been the case.

As she got older, she realized it was just her picking wrong. She still had a tendency to fall in love quickly, to get swept off her feet by bedroom eyes and a sweet smile and charming words and actions. Inevitably she'd be disappointed.

There was Colt Wheeler, first of all, the son of her mom's second husband. At first she'd hated him, but then she couldn't stay away. The forbidden fruit aspect of it was so enticing. But once their parents had married each other, it was too weird and, even now, their relationship was cool and distant.

She met Clay Carter the summer she was seventeen, when she did an internship at a local recording studio. She saw him performing at a street fair near the studio, when she was out getting a coffee order. She stopped for a moment to watch him, something about his sound catching her ear. He had glanced over and made eye contact, giving her a shy smile. When she came back out of the coffee shop, she was so mesmerized by his voice that she dropped one of the coffees and he raced over to help her. It was one of those perfect 'meet cute' moments and it still could make her smile.

Clay was older, though. Much older. And both her parents were wary. It was one of the few times when they actually banded together as her parents, although it truthfully probably pushed her more towards Clay, which was exactly what they didn't want. But, in the end, Clay was complicated, bipolar and unmedicated, and he eventually disappeared, both from Nashville and from her life, leaving her confused and sad.

When she turned eighteen, she moved in with her dad. She had been considering it ever since her mom had remarried, but it had felt like the timing was finally right. She hadn't known he was her father until she was thirteen and it had been a journey for both of them. Music had been what became the bridge as he learned how to be a father and she learned how to be his daughter. He was a different kind of parent than her mom was and she had always felt their relationship was less parent-child and, while not equals, more defined by all the years she'd just known him as her mom's bandleader and as an adult she bonded with.

Since she was also legally an adult, their relationship felt more collegial. And while he did play the dad card at times, she felt more comfortable with talking to him about things that mattered in her life. Her hopes and dreams and her fears. He might not have started out as her father, but he'd been a port in a storm for her and had been supportive when she needed, honest when she faltered, and someone she looked up to both personally and professionally.

He'd been the one who was most present when she'd met Jonah Ford. She was just starting her career and she'd been asked to perform at a benefit in LA. Turned out he was the one who'd asked for her to participate. He was the first guy to ever truly sweep her off her feet. He was sweet and romantic and he looked deep into her eyes when he talked to her and when she talked to him. He was a huge star, with many adoring fans, and she was just starting out, so living in his world had been heady and amazing at first. She'd felt like a princess at times, walking on a cloud.

Her dad tried to keep her balanced and be the voice of reason, but she had allowed herself to get caught up in the magic of it. Which meant, that when the bottom dropped out, she'd been beyond distraught. She'd closed herself up in her room for days, not showering, not eating, just crying and writing the saddest and the angriest songs she'd ever written.

When she had finally come out of her room, he was waiting, with a hug and take-out Chinese food. And advice.

 _He sat down across the table from her, watching her eat. "Maddie, I'm gonna tell you two things. One is that this'll pass. Your music will be better for it – trust me, I got a whole catalog of songs from everything I been through. And you'll figure out how to move on. But second is that you'll know what you need now. I won't say you won't never do this again, but you'll know better how to deal with it."_

 _She looked at him, hearing his truth in his words. "Was it like this for you with Mom?" she asked. "Did you feel like sometimes you just couldn't live another day? That you'd never be happy, ever again?"_

 _He breathed in and then raised his eyebrows. "Yeah," he said, with a nod. "Sometimes it did feel just like that."_

" _What did you do?"_

 _He gave her a sad smile. "I wrote songs. I gotta be honest, sometimes I thought about drinking, just so I didn't have to think about it no more. But mostly I just wrote songs. Kept just putting one foot in front of the other. Til it got easier." She nodded and then he got up from the table. "Oh, one more thing." She looked up. A smile played across his face. "Take a shower. You stink."_

She had laughed, as she recalled, and then, after she ate, she'd done exactly that. And then she'd kept on writing. She'd ended up with enough songs for almost five complete albums. He had worked with her to cull the best and it had earned her a Best New Artist Grammy that year and was really the jumping off point for her career.

* * *

One of the casualties of her break up with Jonah had been his friend Twig. Twig was kind of awkward and seemed so unlike Jonah, when she'd first met him. He was sweet, though, and smart and she could tell he had a bit of a crush on her. But in the end, he was Jonah's friend first and so when Jonah left, so did Twig.

She missed him though. And through the years she'd think about him on occasion, wonder what he was doing, whether he was still part of Jonah Ford's entourage. Then she got caught up in her career and other relationships and she stopped thinking about the shy boy who kept an eye out for her.

* * *

And then one day, when she was working on her latest album, Twig came by the studio, all grown up. Only now he was going by his real name, Tyler Wysecki, and he'd disentangled himself from Jonah Ford and that whole lifestyle years before and was not even anywhere close to the music business. He had taken her out for coffee and they'd talked for hours, about her career and her life, and how he'd gone to college and gotten a business degree and then a law degree and was randomly back in Nashville, doing real estate law for a big Nashville law firm.

She'd still been a little gun shy on relationships, so they'd taken it slow, but she had fallen in love with him quickly, with his kindness and gentleness, the way he treated her, his sense of humor, his strength and his vulnerability. When he'd taken her out to a house outside of Franklin, she'd been enchanted by it. It was one of those old antebellum type homes, with a grand, sweeping staircase in the entrance and tall ceilings throughout. Lots of windows and a kitchen that rivaled the one from her mom's Belle Meade house. It was on a huge plot of land, with sweeping views from the grand patio out back and an amazing pool. Inside there was a fully tricked out music room, which she later found out Tyler had had built with her dad's guidance.

After he'd shown her the upstairs, with the grand master suite and spa-like master bathroom, they'd walked down the stairs. Just as she reached the bottom step, he'd gone down on one knee and asked her to live in the house with him as his wife and she felt as swept off her feet as she thought her mom had ever been, happily squealing yes.

The ring was magnificent, although not as ostentatious as the ring Luke had given her mother, and not as simple as the one her dad had given to his wife. It was perfect though, just right, just like Tyler.

When she was finally home and in her bed, she'd known exactly what to do to fulfill the dream she'd had for so many years – to reunite her parents, even if it was just as friends. Because she believed they'd never truly stopped caring about each other, they'd just both been too stubborn to acknowledge it.

 **Rayna**

Rayna picked up the phone and smiled when she saw it was Maddie. "Hey there, sweet girl," she said when she answered.

"Hey, Mom. So, are you sitting down?"

"I'm not. Do I need to be?"

"Maybe. Or maybe not." She giggled. "Tyler asked me to marry him."

Rayna's hand flew to her mouth. "Oh, Maddie, I'm so excited for you!" she cried. "How did he ask you?"

"Oh, Mom, it was really so sweet. He took me to this house out in the country and showed me around. Turns out he'd bought it, but he didn't say that right away. And it has this amazing grand winding staircase in the foyer, kind of like the one at your house. And right as we came down to the bottom step, he got down on one knee and asked me."

Rayna had tears in her eyes. "Oh, sweetheart, that's so romantic. And I'm so happy for you. Tyler is so sweet. And he loves you so much."

"I love him too, Mom. More than I ever thought I could love anyone, you know?"

"So have you picked a date yet or are you still just basking in the glow of it all?"

"We haven't picked a date, but we did decide we're going to do it on a beach in California at sunset. Not a big deal kind of thing, just us and our family and closest friends. But I do have a favor to ask."

Rayna smiled. "Anything."

"We'd like for you and Dad to have a pre-wedding party for us the night before."

Rayna took a breath and her smile faded. "Oh, honey, I don't know." She bit her lip. "I mean, I'd be _happy_ to do the party for you, but I just don't think your father would want to, you know, be involved."

"Why not? Do you mean you think he wouldn't want to do it for _me_ or that you just don't want to do it with _him_?"

Rayna ran her fingers through her hair. "Neither of those things. I think he won't want to do it with _me_."

"I'll ask him. I bet he will." Rayna thought she sounded stubborn, a little bit like she had back when she was sixteen and didn't get her way.

"You should do that. If he wants to, well, then I'm sure we can figure it out."

After she had ended the call with Maddie, she sat down at her desk and leaned back. It had been a while since she'd even seen Deacon in person. They hadn't run in the same circles for years and, once Maddie had turned eighteen and moved in with him, they had not talked much. It had made her sad at first. He'd been her best friend for so many years, but when she had married Luke it had sort of shut the door on them. He'd been distant when they talked about Maddie, cutting conversations short and seeming to look through her instead of at her. Eventually she'd shrugged it off, figuring it really was the end of them.

 **Deacon**

"Dad? Are you home?" Deacon was back in his music room when he heard Maddie. He got up and walked over to the door.

"Back in the music room, Maddie!" he called out. He waited until she rounded the corner and he smiled at her, pulling her into a hug. "Hey, baby girl, how you doing?" He smiled to himself.

She pulled out of his hug and held out her left hand, a huge smile on her face. "I'm engaged!" she squealed.

He hugged her again. "Congratulations, baby. Come sit and tell me all about it." They walked over to one of the couches and sat down. He turned towards her, waiting to hear her story.

After she had given him the blow-by-blow of the house tour and the actual ask, she said, "There was the most incredible music room in the house too. It was like he knew everything to get."

He raised an eyebrow. "Maybe he did."

She looked at him suspiciously, a little smile on her face. "Wait a minute. Did you help him?"

He lifted both eyebrows and nodded. "I did. He came to ask me if he could ask you to marry him and then he asked if I'd help design your music room."

She threw her arms around him. "Oh my God, Dad, I should have known. I can't believe you kept it a secret."

He laughed. "It sure wasn't easy, I can tell you that." He squeezed her hand. "You got a good one, Maddie."

"I know," she said, with a smile. "So, we haven't set a date yet, but we do know we want to do it on a beach at sunset. In California."

He made a face. "California?"

"It's where he's from, Dad. Plus I think it'll be so romantic to get married on the beach."

"I guess."

She laughed. "Says the man who's idea of getting married is at city hall."

He shook his head and frowned. "You don't need no fancy wedding with five hundred people to get married, you know."

"Well, you'll be happy to know we're doing it small. Family, close friends. That's it. But…we do have a favor to ask you."

"I gave him permission. What else do y'all need?"

She looked at him carefully. "We want to have a pre-wedding party the night before. And we'd like you and Mom to do it."

Hearing that gave him an unsettled feeling. It had been a long time since he'd even talked to Rayna. She had closed the door on them pretty firmly that night just a couple weeks before she married Luke. He'd told her he still loved her and she had shut him down, firmly and definitively. He'd finally had to get the message, that she was well and truly done with him. It had been awkward and uncomfortable when they had to deal with issues together related to Maddie, and he'd been grateful when she became an adult. They had both seemed relieved not to have to deal with each other anymore.

He shook his head. "Baby, I think your mama is better at planning that kinda thing. I ain't no party planner." He got up then and walked over to the sound board, moving the knobs back and forth, giving himself something to focus on.

Maddie huffed behind him. "I can't believe you two are so obnoxious about this." He turned around and narrowed his eyes at her. "She was the same way. 'Oh, I don't think your dad will even want to do it with me.' I'm your daughter. You two are my parents, even if you do act like the other one has fallen off the face of the earth. You can do this one thing for me, for my wedding."

"Did she say she'd do it?"

She nodded. "She said that if you agreed, she'd figure it out."

He shrugged. "Then I guess we will."

 **Rayna**

She sat in her office and tapped her fingers on the desk. Then she got up and started pacing. "What's going on?" She turned to see Bucky standing in the doorway.

She shook her head and waved her hands. "Maddie's getting married," she said, with a sigh.

Bucky smiled. "Well, that's great news!" he said. "To that guy she's been seeing?"

She nodded. "Yeah, Tyler." She smiled. "It was so sweet. He actually bought a house and took her out there and proposed."

He looked surprised. "He bought a house? Without checking with Maddie first?"

She rolled her eyes, but was still smiling. "It's completely her style, so I think it wasn't really an issue. He really does just make her feel like a princess." She sighed. "I can remember those days. Even now. Getting swept off your feet with that big, all-encompassing love."

"So why do you seem so…agitated?"

She leaned back against the desk, her arms crossed over her waist. "She wants me to throw her a pre-wedding party. Oh, and the wedding's going to be on a beach in California. At sunset. Malibu. She's already got the place and I checked and it has a lovely outside deck area for this party."

He look puzzled. "Well, it sounds like it's mostly done. All you have to do is pick out, what, food and decorations?"

She made a face. "It isn't the party." She sighed again. "It's that she wants me to do it with Deacon."

He widened his eyes. "Ah. Well, now I get it. So have you talked to him yet?"

She shook her head. "I guess I'm avoiding it. Like he's been avoiding me for the last fifteen years."

He smiled. "I think you've been avoiding him too."

She shrugged. "I suppose you're right. I don't even think I know how to talk to him anymore, Bucky. I would never have believed the day would come when I would not have any kind of relationship with him. How did it get like this?"

"Well, I think it happens when you have two stubborn people who won't forgive each other. Or themselves." He cut her a look. "Both of you drew a line in the sand. Not something you haven't done before, but this time neither one of you would cross it. Or reach out to each other. Even when both your lives changed."

She looked out through the glass wall in her office. "It got to be habit," she said. "Just like everything else in our lives. It was a habit." She turned back to him. "I don't even know how to do this anymore."

He smiled at her. "If there's one thing I know about you, Rayna Jaymes, it's that you can talk to anyone. Whether you know them or not. And Deacon Claybourne is not someone you don't know."

"I feel like I don't though, Buck. Not now."

He shook his head. "I'm not buying it. Just pick up the phone and call."

She looked at him for a minute. "Why did you come by?" she asked.

He looked a little surprised, then grinned. "Just was in the neighborhood and couldn't resist stopping into the old stomping grounds." He laughed. "Plus I just sensed you were looking for some advice."

She walked over then and hugged him, as he hugged her back. "I've missed you, Buck. Are you sure you don't want to come out of retirement?"

He stepped back and laughed. "Oh, no. This is the life. You should think about it sometime though."

She shook her head and grinned. "I'm too young to retire. I still have new artists to nurture."

"Well, it was good seeing you, Rayna," he said as he turned to leave. Then he looked back. "Call Deacon."

She waved him off and then watched as he walked back through the reception area, chatting up everyone as he slowly made his way out of the office. She really did miss him. Then she walked back to her desk and picked up her phone. She slowly scrolled down and found his name, then wondered if he still had the same number. She rolled her eyes. _Of course he has the same number. That man never changes anything._ She still hesitated. Despite what Bucky had said, she had lost that rhythm with Deacon long ago. It had not happened immediately after she'd told him to move on with his life, but it had happened sometime after Maddie turned eighteen and moved in with him. Things changed. Actually, things had changed before that, but that event had seemed to seal the deal.

She sighed and looked at the phone again. Finally she pressed call and lifted the phone to her ear. "Hey," she said when he answered. "It's me."

 **Deacon**

He'd had to bite his tongue when Maddie called to give him the details of the wedding.

" _It's the Malibu Beach Inn, Dad, right on the ocean," she said. "There's not much space on the beach itself, but since we're not having a lot of people, it'll be fine."_

" _Are you gonna be barefoot or something?"_

 _She laughed gaily. "Maybe. I'd probably get sand in my shoes anyway, so maybe I will. So it'll be at sunset and then we'll have a brief reception afterwards."_

" _Do I gotta go barefoot?" he asked._

 _She laughed. "No. You can wear your boots."_

" _So what's the deal with this party the night before?" he asked, knowing he sounded grumpy._

" _There's a deck that overlooks the beach and we can have it catered and everything. You know that Tyler's parents are both gone, so it's sort of a rehearsal dinner, sort of just a gathering. It'll be so nice." She paused. "Have you and Mom talked about it yet?"_

 _He scowled. "No."_

 _He could hear her sigh. "Be the better man. Call her."_

" _I ain't calling her. She's the one pushed me away in the first place."_

" _Oh, for crying out loud, Dad. That was so long ago. I thought you were a grown man."_

 _He clenched his jaw. "I_ _am_ _a grown man, Maddie. Don't have nothing to do with it."_

" _I can't believe you're going to spoil my wedding with this petty crap."_

" _It ain't petty crap, Maddie." But he realized it maybe it was. Petty. It had been a long time. A lot had happened to both of them. And he had loved her once. It was how Maddie came to be. But when he thought about calling her, he felt a little nauseous. "Don't worry, baby. We'll do it," he said, his voice softening. He'd do anything for his girl._

He'd picked up his phone a dozen times, trying to be that better man Maddie wanted him to be. _Better man._ He could remember Rayna saying that to him, countless times. _Be a better man. You can be a better man. You're a better man than this, Deacon._ He closed his eyes and ran his hand over his mouth. He heard that so often during the years he was a drunk. He'd never been able to do it then, back when they were together. He'd figured it out – finally – but it had been too late for them. And then when he'd finally gotten her back, he'd found out, by accident, that Maddie was his daughter, and he'd fallen off the wagon again. Ultimately that seemed to be the nail in the coffin for them. While he'd been able to claw his way out of that hole in some ways, he had lost her in the end.

He opened his eyes and looked at his phone. He stood up and walked around his living room. He should call her. He knew it. Maddie was right. He took a deep breath and then his phone buzzed. He looked down and saw her name. His heart started beating – hard – and he felt like he couldn't breathe. Finally he held the phone to his ear. "Hey," he said.

"Hey," she said. "It's me."

He smiled a little to himself. "Yeah, I saw that. Saw your name."

She laughed a little. "Oh, yeah." She paused. "So, um, seems that our daughter's getting married."

He did smile then. "Yeah, seems like it. I'm happy for her. For both of 'em."

"They're a sweet couple, that's for sure." She cleared her throat. "Anyway, apparently she wants us to throw her this _party_."

"Yep," he said.

"Well, I was thinking maybe we should get together and talk about it."

He sighed. "Look, Rayna, you're better at this stuff than me. You can plan it and I'll pay half and we'll call it good, okay?"

She was quiet for so long, he wondered if she'd hung up. "No," she said, her voice brittle.

"No?"

"No. Deacon, she asked us to do this together and I don't think she'd be very happy to know that you let me do all the work and you just paid for part of it."

"Half of it." He felt mulish.

"Whatever." He could see her rolling her eyes. "That's not how we're going to do this." She sighed. "Look, I know it's sort of weird. We haven't seen each other in a while. But she's our _daughter_ , Deacon. Our _child_. Our only child. We need to do this for _her_ , whatever our feelings for each other." She paused again. "Do you really hate me that much?" she asked, a note of hurt in her voice.

He felt an ache in his chest. "I don't hate you, Rayna," he said. "That ain't it at all."

"Then let's just do this. Do you want to come here? Or I could come to your house?"

He shook his head. "Nah. We could meet for coffee or something. It ain't gonna take that long to plan something, is it?"

When she answered, he thought he detected sadness in her voice. "Probably not. Okay, then, where?"

"How 'bout Barista Parlor?"

"Tomorrow? Eleven sound good?"

"Yeah. See you then." He hung up and swallowed hard. Rayna Jaymes had been the most important person in his life for the better part of three decades and then she wasn't. They'd both gone through a lot of changes since then, ups and downs, twists of fate. They were different people. That's what he told himself. It was inevitable. Maybe they were too.

 **Rayna**

She had hardly slept the night before, which had surprised her. After all, it was just coffee. It wasn't a date or anything like that. It was planning a wedding party for their daughter. One of those mundane things parents did. Together. But it was Deacon. She had missed him, she realized. She had mostly kept herself from thinking about it, about him, the way she did things. After she got married, after he got married, she had put him in a box, tied a ribbon around it, and hid it. Never once brought it out, not like she had during the time she was married to Teddy. If she was honest with herself, in the beginning it had been tough, but she'd felt like she owed it to Luke. Eventually it became a habit, like she'd told Bucky.

She dressed carefully. Nothing too revealing or sexy, not that, at her age, she wore sexy clothes anymore, but still. She checked herself in the mirror and thought she looked age appropriate. Jeans, a white top, a leather vest and boots, her hair in a messy bun at the nape of her neck, and her glasses. Glasses. She remembered when she'd first started wearing them and eventually it became most of the time.

" _Do I look like a school marm?" she asked Daphne._

 _Daphne screwed up her face. "What's a school marm?"_

 _Rayna laughed. "A schoolteacher, smarty pants." She tried looking at her reflection in the fridge. "Do I look like a nerd?"_

" _You've always looked like a nerd, Mom." Rayna whirled around and stuck her tongue out and Daphne laughed._

She shrugged. It didn't matter. Contacts bothered her eyes if she left them in too long and glasses were just easier these days. And it wasn't like she was trying to impress Deacon. She breathed in and let it out. Except that she did have those pesky butterflies, for no good reason.

She headed out of her bedroom and down the stairs to the kitchen. She picked up her phone and saw that she had several texts from the office, none of which required her immediate attention. Then she saw one from Deacon and took a deep breath, sure he was going to bail. _Running a little behind. Be there by 11:15._ She breathed a sigh of relief. They didn't need to put this off.

* * *

She was sitting at a table by the window with her coffee. Every time the door opened, she looked up, but it hadn't been him. This time it was. He took off his sunglasses and looked around and she raised her hand. Her heart was pounding and she felt like she couldn't breathe. _This is stupid._ He looked the same – the flannel shirt, the well-worn jeans, the dusty boots. The only thing different was he had a fuller beard and both it and his hair were speckled with gray. It gave him a distinguished look. A sexy look, if she were honest.

He walked towards her slowly and she couldn't take her eyes off of him. He laid his sunglasses on the table and gave her a ghost of a smile. "Hey, Rayna," he said, in that deep, whiskey-laced voice she'd almost forgotten. "I'm, ah, I'm gonna go get coffee." He sounded almost rattled, she thought, and he pointed towards the coffee bar. She nodded mutely and he walked away.

She watched as he stood at the counter. He looked like he'd put on a little weight but was still trim, looked very much the same, which didn't surprise her. He was still playing guitar around town, still writing, she knew. Maddie had told her he was doing some producing these days, working with newer artists. She had wondered if he were avoiding her artists or if it just hadn't crossed his radar. When he turned, she was still staring, and she felt herself get red in the face, but she smiled.

He sat down across from her, his posture stiff as he took a sip from his cup. She decided she needed to start the conversation. That had often been the case with them. She was the talker, he was not. She supposed that had not really changed. "So. How've you been?" she asked.

He shrugged and glanced away before looking back at her. His crystal blue eyes were still the same, still searching, seeking, _something_ , as he looked at her. "Good," he said finally. "Been busy."

She nodded. "I heard you've been doing some producing."

"Yep. Here and there."

She gave him a little smile. "Maybe I should have you work with some of my artists." He gave her a look that seemed to say maybe not. She cleared her throat, then pushed a sheet of paper over in front of him. "Here's some notes I made. Just ideas on food and drink and music."

He took the sheet of paper and looked it over, then looked back up at her. "I told you didn't both of us need to plan. Looks like you got it all worked out. Just tell me what I owe you."

She looked at him and anger raced through her. And then it was gone. Just like that. All she felt was a deep, soul crushing sadness. She felt a knot in her stomach and she wanted to cry. She lowered her head and took a deep, shaky breath. "I didn't realize I'd hurt you this badly," she whispered. "I really never meant to do that." She took a beat, then grabbed her purse and stood up, heading for the door.

 **Deacon**

He hated making her cry. Or making her sad. She was halfway to the door when he bolted out of his seat and got to her before she reached the door. He put his hand on her arm and she stopped and looked at him. There were no tears on her cheeks, but her eyes were damp. He couldn't help it, his heart sank. He bit his lip. "I'm sorry," he said.

She looked like the fight was gone from her. He didn't know if it was just this or if things had changed over the years. It had taken him a lot longer to get over her than he would ever have let on. He'd felt like she'd taken what he'd said to her that night – _I love you. That's it, it's easy. I always have and you're just gonna have to deal with the fact that that ain't gonna change_ – and thrown it back in his face. She'd walked away and two weeks later she had married Luke Wheeler.

It had felt a lot like it had when he'd come home from rehab and found out she'd married Teddy Conrad. And he knew she had the discipline and resolve to stay the course. She'd done it with Teddy and he was sure she'd do it with Luke. He'd been forced into a corner and he'd had to take a much different path than he'd ever imagined. Yes, she had hurt him badly. That much was true. But it was also true that just looking at the sadness in her eyes still could force him to his knees.

 _Be the better man._ He could hear Maddie's voice in his ear and he knew he wasn't doing that. He breathed out. "I'm sorry," he said again. "Let's go somewhere and talk, okay?"

She took a deep breath and then finally she nodded. "Sure," she said. "We can do that."

* * *

He was kind of surprised the old stone picnic table was still there. As he stood at the edge of the road waiting for her, he looked out over the place where they used to meet, back when she was still married to Teddy. That had started more than twenty-five years earlier, back when he was just her bandleader and they were both struggling to figure out how to navigate a new normal between them. She'd held on to him then and he'd often wondered why. Of course, later he knew – it was for Maddie – but for all those years he'd waited for her, hoped something would change, believed they were soulmates, meant to be together.

When they'd finally gotten their chance, he'd blown it. He shoved his hands in his pockets and scowled, shaking his head. _It ain't all my fault. I ain't the one who lied all those years. I ain't the one who would have gone on lying._ She'd never really acknowledged the damage that had done. She'd never really taken the time to understand the pain he'd felt, knowing she would willingly and purposefully cover up something like that, for all those years.

It made him angry again. It had been a long time since that hurt had resurfaced. He'd mostly learned to live with it. He'd developed a loving relationship with his daughter, gotten the chance to be a real part of her life. She was the best thing he had, even if he had missed so many years and so many memories. The betrayal had lost its sharp edges over the years. He'd accepted his role in it, understood how she'd made her decisions, mostly made peace with it. But it was what had them here, at the core of it all. She'd never completely forgiven him for what had happened that night at the corner of Battlefield and Granny White Pike. It was always there – the reason she couldn't let him back in. The reason she'd, yet again, chosen someone else.

He heard her drive up and he turned to watch her as she got out of the car and walked slowly towards him. In many ways she still looked the same. The color of her hair had faded just a touch, but it was still gloriously red. She still had freckles across her nose, he'd noticed at the coffee shop. She was still slender and poised. She had a few more lines around her eyes and the corners of her mouth, same as him, but she looked younger than her age.

She smiled as she approached. "I'm not sure I can jump that wall anymore," she said, with a short laugh.

He smiled back. "I ain't sure I can neither. Good thing there's some steps down here." He pointed a little further down and then let her lead the way, following behind her.

When they were both settled on the table, she turned to look at him. "When's the last time we were here, do you think?"

He thought about it. "I think 'fore I joined the Revel Kings," he said.

She nodded. "I think you're right. Back when the worst thing was having to decide whether to support Teddy or Cole for mayor." She made a face.

He looked at her. "Don't think there was much to decide about that. For either of us."

"You're probably right about that." She leaned forward, clasping her hands between her knees. "I can't believe Maddie's getting married. She waited a really long time."

He nodded and looked out over the creek. "She did. She was waiting on some big love though, the one that was gonna sweep her off her feet, set off fireworks and all."

She looked back at him. "That what she told you?" she asked, with a grin.

"Yep. Wanted true love, she said, the kind where you know they're right. In your bones, in your blood."

She bit her lip. "I wouldn't have expected it to be Tyler, I have to admit. Although he's a sweet man and obviously loves her. But you know more about that than me."

He thought he caught a wistfulness there, both in her eye and her voice. It was true. Maddie started seeing Jonah Ford when she was living with him, so he was more aware of that relationship, one that had flamed up quick and been over with an explosion. "I was surprised too," he said. "He was all mixed up in Jonah's deception and it hurt Maddie. I think she just grew up by the time he came back in her life. She was still cautious though. Careful." He breathed out. "Like you."

 **Rayna**

She felt little tingles all up and down her body. Sitting this close to Deacon again was so many things – familiar, strange, comforting, awkward, pleasant. The last time they'd sat together here, he didn't know about Maddie. It was many months before he would find out about their daughter, in the worst possible way, with the worst possible outcome. It was what she had feared most, over thirty years before, when she'd found out she was pregnant and made the decisions she made then. There was a lot they'd never talked about that followed the reveal. Some of it she'd swept under the rug, consciously never addressed or allowed herself to look at. And there was the day, at his cabin, after they'd had to confront Maddie's paternity publicly, when she'd told him her resentment of him was bigger than his resentment of her, that she somehow had the higher ground on it.

She looked down at her hands, then back at him. "That may be the only thing she got from me then," she said. "She tried very hard to not be like me, you know." She could feel her emotions rising to the surface. She and Maddie had a wonderful relationship these days, but for a long time after Maddie found out about Deacon, it had tested their closeness. "She probably resented me as much as you did." She looked over at him.

He lifted his shoulders and looked away. "She was hurt, Rayna, confused." He looked back at her. "She had a lotta questions, questions you didn't always answer. I get that you wanted to protect her and you did even after it all came out. But at some point, she deserved answers. Hell, _I_ deserved answers. And you didn't give none." He shook his head and let out a sharp laugh. "I forgave you, Rayna. I let myself fall back in love with you. But you was still so damn closed off. Like you made up your mind and wasn't nothing gonna change it." He looked at her sharply. "Like you did with Teddy."

She nodded. "You're right. That's exactly what I did."

He looked at her, his face screwed up. "You ever have a plan? I mean, were you just gonna stay married to Teddy and keep lying about Maddie and we'd have gone on like that until, I don't know, Maddie went off to college or a career or whatever she was gonna do? Were you just gonna never tell us?"

She looked away from him and took a deep breath. "The only plan I ever had was when I married Teddy. When I decided that I was gonna protect my baby and give her a safe life. And protect myself. It wasn't what I wanted, Deacon, I told you that, but it was what I had to do. I put her first. So no, I didn't have a plan. I also didn't think you'd stay sober, but you did. I just didn't want to do anything that would hurt Maddie. Or you. And thinking about telling you, well, I was afraid the exact thing that _did_ happen _would_ happen."

"Rayna…." he started.

She held up her hand. "Look. I know what you're going to say. You're right. I had no plan, I had no idea what I was doing. And then I let myself get involved with you thinking I could keep it to myself. That was my mistake. I contributed to what happened that night. I did. Does that make you feel better?"

 **Deacon**

He worked his lip and then turned to her. "It ain't about making _me_ feel better, Rayna," he said. "It ain't even you apologizing to me anymore. You gotta accept for yourself what your part was." He gave her a steady look. "Without trying to justify it or nothing. Just say it and own it. Like I did. You ain't better than me, Rayna. I ain't better than you. But it's what's between us now. Maybe that's on me, but it's just there."

She stared at him and, for a second, he thought she was going to get angry, tell him yet again why her point of view was the right one, all the things she kept saying or implying during that time after he'd found out about Maddie. Then she lowered her eyes and finally looked away. "There weren't any right answers, Deacon. I realize that now," she said. "I know it's probably too little too late, but I am truly sorry." She clasped her hands together in her lap and leaned forward. "I didn't know what to do. I knew what I wanted, in my heart." She turned and looked at him then. "I wanted to do that with _you_. I never stopped wanting to do that with _you_. No matter how it came about, I was having _our_ baby. It was something I'd dreamed of, pretty much as long as I'd known you. I wanted us to have that family you wrote about, together." She sighed. "But I stood there on the porch at the cabin and I watched you, destroying everything inside, destroying yourself, and I was scared. _You_ scared me, Deacon. Maybe really for the first time. And you're right, I was afraid to let you be part of Maddie's life in a meaningful way because I just remembered all the times you had disappointed me."

She turned away then and looked off into the distance. He couldn't think of anything to say, so he stayed silent, just watching her. Finally she spoke again. "You surprised me, though, you know? I mean, when you did find out about Maddie" – she turned to look at him and smiled wryly – "and got past the initial shock, you _did_ do right by her. You loved her and you supported her and you were actually the father I knew you could be. _Wanted_ you to be. And all that did was make me regret – again – all that wasted time and I knew that was on me. But I didn't want to admit that to you. I didn't want to admit that to myself, quite honestly. Because if I did, then it meant that I'd made the wrong choice all those years ago and I thought that it wiped out all the good that choice had done." She sat up straight, looking at him intently. "Because there _was_ good, Deacon. Whether you want to acknowledge it or not, Teddy was a really good father to Maddie. It sure wasn't the ideal situation and, if I could do it over, I might make some different decisions, but he loved her like she was his own and he did right by her for all those years."

He looked down and nodded. "I know that, Rayna." He breathed in. "I accepted that a long time ago. And I knew there wasn't nothing that could change any of it. Mad as I got, what was done was done. Being pissed about it or holding it over you didn't change nothing. I forgave you so I could let it go. It was the only way I could do that." He glanced over at her. "And I had to think about Maddie. Didn't do no good to hold on to the mad and make her pay the price."

She nodded. "You're right about that."

He sat up straight and took a deep breath. "So were you happy? Did Luke make you happy?"

She put her hands on the table and leaned back. "Did Luke make me happy?" she mused. She nodded. "Yeah, he did, at least in the beginning. He was fun and kind and treated me really well. He didn't really have baggage. I mean, yeah, he had an ex-wife and their divorce wasn't amicable, but enough time had gone by that he was over the bitterness of that. He was successful and he could stand next to me." She looked at him and bit her lip. "And that's more against Teddy than you." He just looked at her, not sure if he believed that or not. "But it was a different kind of life, you know? Not always what I'd expected."

"But you stayed."

She nodded. "I did. I told myself it was all good. I mean, I had success like I'd really never had before. I realize now that a lot of that was because of being part of this super couple. But sometimes, you know, it felt so empty." She looked at him, a wistful look on her face. "Like I was trying too hard." She sighed. "Didn't it feel like that for you sometimes?"

He raised his eyebrows and breathed in, then out. "Yeah. Sometimes." He cleared his throat. "So what happened?"

She shrugged. "That empty feeling. Sometimes it was standing on a stage and wondering why I was there, what the point was." She looked over the river. "It's hard to explain, even to myself, just what it was. But I remember rehearsing before the last one of those couples' tours we would do." She turned back and looked at him. "I didn't even like the songs we were singing. I thought about how it was for us, back when we were young and in love, and we'd sing those songs we wrote and everything just kind of faded away and all there was on that stage was you and me." She shook her head. "I never felt that with Luke. And that sort of told me that I'd been fooling myself, doing the same exact thing I'd done with Teddy." He watched her wipe away a tear and wondered if it was that she had lingering feelings for Luke Wheeler or was something else. "So I walked away," she said, her voice thick with emotion. "I just packed up my bags and I walked away."

 ** _A/N: Just a little side project. There's one more chapter and it will be finished. Hope you enjoy!_**


	2. Chapter 2

_A/N: For those who were disappointed at how long Deacon and Rayna went without contact, I hope you came back for the conclusion. My idea was to play out the idea that Rayna went ahead and married Luke, making that break seem more realistic. And, although I don't really focus on it, they would still have been in contact before Maddie turned 18. Hope you enjoy how it turns out!_

 **Rayna**

He shook his head. "It took you a long time to get to that though."

She looked back at him and frowned. "What's your point? That I stayed longer than I should have?"

He raised an eyebrow. "Wouldn't be the first time."

She looked away. He was right about that. She'd stayed too long with Teddy. Things were never the same after his business venture went under. The one she thought was just bad timing and didn't know was actually tainted by his embezzlement activity. The one that had cost them almost everything they had and put her in a position of having to be the primary breadwinner. But she had still stayed. For _years_. For the girls, she always told herself. "If all you're doing is just picking at a scab, Deacon, I'm not sure I get why we're even here." She leveled her gaze at him. "This isn't productive, it's just you trying to be hurtful."

He leaned forward, clasping his hands in front of him. "I'm sorry. I don't mean to do that."

She sat up straight and took a deep breath. "I've always tried to make things work. I've probably always stayed in relationships longer than I should have. I value commitments and I like to honor the ones I make. And maybe I do stay too long. Maybe I take too long to realize I've overstayed. But I've always given a hundred percent. I've always been all in."

He nodded. "I'll give you that. You always done that." He looked at her. "I'm just asking though, 'cause you really did seem like you ran outta gas a long time before you finally left."

She shrugged. "Did it seem that way?" He nodded and she sighed. She had wondered the same thing, if she was honest. It had really not taken long before she'd felt unsettled, but she had told herself it was what she'd wanted. The clean slate, no history. And they had gone through the motions. For years. "Maybe I did. But like I said, it's hard to walk away. Teddy made it easier when he decided to have an affair with Peggy. But Luke really didn't do anything _wrong_ , he just wanted something different than I did. And it took me a long time to really figure that out. And of course, you know, he's made it sound like I misled him somehow, that I was using him somehow."

"Well, I do know that ain't true. You ain't never been someone who hadn't worked hard and you always had integrity."

She smiled sadly. "Thanks for that. I've always tried to be that way. It was disappointing to have things end the way they did, but it was for the best." She rubbed her hands on her legs. "The past five years have been so healing for me. I've really focused on my label and that's gone really well." She laughed a little. "And I actually haven't missed being on stage."

He looked surprised, but smiled. "Really? I sorta figured you'd die on stage."

She laughed. "I used to think that too, but thankfully not." She inclined her head slightly. "I do still perform at the Opry though, whenever they ask. That gives me the taste of performing I still need." She reached over and tapped his arm then. "What about you? I know it's not fair of me to say this, but I never imagined you'd get married."

"Why? 'Cause you just thought I'd always wait around for you?"

She shook her head. "Well, no, of course not. But you really weren't that much into long term relationships."

He gave her a look. "'Cept for the one I had with you."

She sighed. She hated this antagonizing side to him. It seemed new and not in character for him. "How did you meet her?"

He breathed out. "Actually I knew her from the days I was doing writers' rounds at the Bluebird. She was trying to break out and couple times she ended up on one with me. She was sweet, but kinda naïve." He smiled. "Her songs reminded me of yours back when I first met you."

She remembered how he told her her songs sounded immature and fake. He didn't pull any punches back in those days. Still didn't, really. She smiled. "Oh, wow. So she really _was_ young, huh?"

He shrugged. "Not as young as you, but, like you, she didn't have no good life experience to pull from. And not much imagination neither, back then." He sighed. "She went through tough times. She was married to Brad Maitland for a while, bad divorce."

She nodded. "Oh, I remember some of that. She had a messy affair, right? Lost custody of her son. Had a breakdown?"

He scowled. "All that is is a bunch a gossip."

She raised her eyebrows. "Really? Because I think it's all true, Deacon. I'm not judging, just saying what I know."

He continued to frown. "Factually, I guess it's true. But you know Maitland and what an ass he was."

She shrugged. "Well, yeah, that's true. It was actually kind of shocking to find out what he'd been doing. I remember his label just sort of disintegrated really quickly after all those allegations. Highway 65 picked up some of the best of his artists, which really kind of put us over the top. So I get that he was a bad man, but she didn't help her cause, as I recall." She looked at him. "The breakdown was real. And pretty devastating."

He nodded. "It was. But he pushed her to her limit. She was always kinda fragile, I guess, unsure of herself, scared."

She smiled a little. "You do love to rescue wounded birds."

He made an angry noise and pushed up and off the table, taking several strides away from her. Then he turned, pointing his hand towards her. "You don't know nothing," he shouted. "Not about me, not about her. She wasn't no 'wounded bird', as you say. She was abused, hurt, powerless in that relationship. Not like you. She ain't strong like you. She came out of it though."

She was surprised at how angry he got. It made her wonder if he was over her, even though it had been over ten years earlier when he'd gotten divorced. "Clearly I didn't know the whole story. I'm sorry, Deacon."

He shook his head, still scowling. "Wasn't none of it her fault, Rayna. Her ex tried to control everything in her life, couldn't never stand to see her happy. Tried everything he could to take her son away and make his life miserable too. Just to get back at Jessie. She never felt like she could stand up to him. It was why she left in the first place. He kept her on a tight leash the whole time he knew her."

She found herself feeling compassion for someone she'd never met. She had been surprised when Deacon got married, but he'd been out of her orbit for long enough that their paths had never crossed. She remembered seeing pictures of the two of them, thinking they made an attractive couple. Maddie hadn't been close to her, had said little about her during the time they were married. What she did know is that it hadn't lasted long. Not even a year, if she remembered. Now she was surprised he still was so…something. _Does he still love her? Is it just a protective thing?_ "That sounds terrible," she said. "It sounds like you still are in contact with her."

He took a deep breath and let it out in a whoosh, looking away from her. "I ain't. I ain't seen her in years. She left Nashville back after we broke up. She really wasn't made for here."

"Do you miss her?" she asked, her voice soft.

He looked back at her then for a long moment, then shook his head. "Nah. It was a mistake." He shrugged. "You were sorta right. I think I did wanna rescue her, from a bad situation. Help her. I mean, I loved her then. She was a caring, loving person, but there was a lotta pain inside her and she needed to leave."

"So you don't have _any_ contact with her?"

He shook his head. "Nope. I did for a while, but she's gone back where she's from, she and her son, and she started over there. She didn't need no ties to here and I needed to let go."

 **Deacon**

He could feel himself breathing hard. It wasn't that he still loved Jessie – that relationship had been over for more than a decade – but Rayna really had kind of picked at a scab. It hadn't been a good marriage, doomed from the start by the long reach of her ex-husband, even from a jail cell. He'd cared about her, loved her in his own way, but he hadn't been able to love her the way she needed, the way she deserved. He wasn't really capable of loving anyone else and it still bothered him to know that.

Especially with Rayna sitting right here.

She was watching him and he found himself shifting from one foot to the other. "I can see that you still care about her," she said. "There's nothing wrong with that." He shoved his hands in his pockets. "Did you want the divorce?"

He shrugged. "Wasn't really about who wanted what," he said. "She needed to stand on her own. She'd never done that, not really. I wanted to help her, but she needed to do it herself."

She smiled at him, then patted the seat beside her. He hesitated, then finally walked over and climbed back up onto the table. She didn't say anything at first, then turned to look at him. "You're a good man, Deacon," she said. "A kind man. Someone who wants to help, to rescue." He bristled and she put her hand up. "I mean that in the best possible way." She clasped her hands in her lap. "You weren't able to do that with me. At least most of the time. But it's in your nature to want to protect and help. I saw you do it with Maddie. With Scarlett." She smiled again. "You're a good man," she repeated.

He looked back out over the creek in front of them. "Ain't we supposed to be talking about this party for Maddie?" he asked, surprised at the shakiness he heard in his own voice.

After a moment, she said, "Yeah, that's what we were supposed to be doing. Maybe we need to come back to it another time."

* * *

When he thought about the conversation later, he wasn't sure why he'd been so bristly about Jessie. Everything about that had been a mistake. He hadn't been able to admit to himself, back then, how hurt he'd been when Rayna walked away and married Luke. Marrying someone himself had felt good and validating for a minute, but it had never been right. It hadn't been fair to him or to Jessie.

He remembered Maddie telling him he'd checked off the marriage thing, as though it was a task or a milestone he needed to meet. That had pissed him off at the time, but in retrospective, he'd had to admit she might have been right. He hadn't wanted to look like he was still sitting around, waiting for Rayna to be free again.

 **Rayna**

"Mom, you don't have a lot of time," Maddie whined. Rayna smiled and thought to herself that Maddie was way too old to still be whining. About _anything_.

"Sweetie, don't worry. It's really already done. Your father was actually right when he said he didn't need to do anything more than pay his half. I had already called the restaurant and gotten all the catering information." She hesitated, running her tongue over her bottom lip. "So do you think he's still in love with his ex-wife?"

"What? Jessie? Good grief, no, Mom. I'm not sure he ever really _loved_ her the way you love someone you marry. I think he did it to help her out or something."

"Rescue her?" Rayna mused.

"Yes! That's it exactly. I mean, she was a nice woman, and she clearly loved _him_. I mean, she was always all googly eyed over him and very deferential. She was scared all the time, though. I think her first husband really did a number on her self-esteem – and it wasn't that strong to begin with – and she just never really recovered. Dad had a chance to be the strong one, the alpha."

Rayna bit her lip. "Like he didn't get to be with me."

"I didn't say that. But he got to do the taking care of and I think that's what he wanted to be able to do. But it was just all messed up, and she was all messed up, and it unraveled so fast. I think he still worries about her sometimes, but that's it." She paused. "Wait. Did it make you jealous?" There was an amused tone to her voice.

Rayna shook her head. "No, no, of course not. He just was so quick to think I was being critical. And gossipy. It was like he was being this white knight, riding in to protect the damsel in distress." Maddie laughed. "Oh, wait, that sounded terrible. I don't even _know_ Jessie. Never met her. I shouldn't say that."

"But it's true, Mom. It was exactly that. It was almost like he was being a father to her, which is kind of creepy when I say it out loud. You know, it was funny, she was older than she looked. You'd think someone who'd gone through everything she had would have looked older, but it was as though she just stayed all young and dewy because she was waiting to be rescued and saved. He just felt protective, I think. But she tried his patience, which, as you know, he doesn't have much of."

Rayna chuckled. "About a lot of things, that's true."

"He always had patience for _you_ , Mom," Maddie said, her voice quiet.

Rayna frowned. "Don't do that, Maddie. That was over a very long time ago and I think, somehow, we've probably killed whatever was left."

"How? By marrying other people? I mean, it's not like he didn't wait for you the whole time you were married to Teddy."

"Stop it. Speaking of Teddy, is he coming to the wedding?"

Maddie made an irritated noise. "I don't know. He won't decide for sure. I keep telling him he at least needs to do it for Daphne, so who knows."

"He should do it for _you_ , sweet girl."

"Whatever. He'll either be there or he won't. So, anyway, you'll call Dad and nail down all the details then?"

Rayna smiled into the phone. "Yes, I will."

 **Deacon**

He was surprised when he walked to his door and saw Rayna standing there. He opened the door and frowned. "Did we have more to talk about?" he asked.

She made a face and then walked around him into the house. He thought about calling her out on just walking in without being invited, but she'd not often stood on ceremony with him, so he let it go. He turned to face her. "Actually I think we do," she said.

"I'll transfer the money," he said. "You didn't have to come by here for that."

She rolled her eyes. "I don't care about that, Deacon. I know you're good for it." She put her hands on her hips and paced a little bit. When she turned back to him, he was surprised to see the sadness on her face. "I really hate how distant we've become, Deacon. I hate that it's been fifteen years since we last really had a conversation that wasn't about Maddie." She clasped her hands together and fidgeted a bit. "I hate that I let that last conversation we _did_ have stop me from thinking about what I was doing before I did it."

He raised his eyebrows. "How did you think it was gonna go?"

"You were angry with me, about that _Rolling Stone_ article. You remember that?" He nodded. "You were right to be angry with me. I did it without telling you." She made a face. "Sort of a pattern with me, don't you think? I always said you were impulsive, but it seems like sometimes I am too. Anyway, you were angry and I just wanted to smooth things over. I hated that I let myself get caught up in that, because that was something I'd promised myself I would never do. And, truthfully, I hated that you were so disappointed in me. _I_ was disappointed in me."

He was confused. "But you still went away mad."

She nodded, spreading her hands out. "Yeah, you're right, I did. Because I'd been fighting with myself ever since you'd come to the house and asked me to marry you and I told you no. And you were doing it again, telling me something I didn't want to hear. Because I had it all figured out, you know? I felt like I'd given you all the chances I had in me and when I finally let my guard down, you proved me right, to have stopped giving you those chances."

"You always were stubborn to a fault."

She smiled a little. "Yeah, that's true."

He frowned. "You said it stopped you from thinking about what you was doing."

She nodded. "There had been all these little things that had cropped up. The marketing, the commercials, all that publicity, the kind of stuff Luke did. _Campaigning_ was what it really was. I had never done that. You know that. I always thought the music should stand on its own merits."

"That's true. It was never about the awards for you."

She shook her head. "No, it wasn't. I didn't need six CMA's." She smiled a little then. "Although I was glad to win for 'This Time'. Since we wrote it." He couldn't help but smile back. That had been a good little song. "I think what really put me over the edge was the pre-nup."

"Pre-nup?" He frowned.

She nodded. "Luke had a pre-nup drawn up. Thought it wouldn't be a big deal. But it was. For _me_. I never signed it either. But just the idea he didn't know me any better than that. And then he acted like such an ass when I won awards he was nominated for. But, you know, things were already in gear and it just didn't feel right to walk away. Plus I was sure that once the spectacle of the wedding was over that it would settle down. Be normal again."

"But it wasn't."

"Nope. It wasn't. I know you know, because I know how Maddie felt and I know she complained to you. She was miserable the whole time we were in Australia over Christmas."

"I remember. She came home early."

"Yes, she did."

"So what did you think you was gonna do?"

She twisted her hands. "I think I was gonna break things off." She shrugged. "Maybe. I don't know."

"Why didn't you?"

She sighed and looked away. "I don't know. I loved him. I really did love him, Deacon. And I thought it would be a good life. Someone who understood me, who appreciated music and could talk my language." He couldn't help but think about when she'd come to his house, that day after he'd proposed, and told him she couldn't marry him. She looked at him then. "I meant what I said back then. He was a clean slate. And when I really thought about it, I mean, that was so appealing. In spite of all the over-the-top stuff." She breathed out. "Tandy said it was my new normal and I thought she was right. No more living in the past, trying to tell myself the old memories didn't matter." She looked back at him then. "I told myself that I didn't want to live that way again. I didn't want to worry, any time you didn't come home when I expected you. I didn't want a fight to send you off the deep end. I couldn't" – she choked a little on her words – "let myself be in the situation I was in that night. You know." He _did_ know. The night of the accident.

He looked off into the middle distance. "I guess you were right then, weren't you?" he said quietly.

 **Rayna**

She took a deep breath. "I'm not really sure about that at all," she said, after a moment. She felt a knot in her stomach. He looked confused. "I lost you then. I didn't mean for that to happen." She turned her back on him then and walked over towards his fireplace, then turned back around. "I meant every single thing I ever said to you then. We _were_ connected, and by more than just Maddie. I had loved you for years and I still love you. You're my family. I didn't really want that to change. I wanted us to, I don't know, be friends, be family. Be able to care about each other and want the best for each other and still be able to _talk_ to each other. Because, you know, Deacon, even after all these years where we really haven't talked to each other at all, you still know me better than anyone I know."

He nodded. "Same."

She spread her hands out. "Then why did we let go of each other? I can't tell you how many times something would happen and the first person I wanted to talk to about it – the _very_ first person – was you. It was habit, something _you_ know a whole lot about." She smiled a little and he looked a little contrite. Then she felt that deep sadness again. "But we lost each other. I really never thought that would happen, you know? I mean, I remember telling Tandy I never wanted to see you again, never wanted to talk to you, or _about_ you, again, after the accident. That had been my intent back when I left this house, all those years ago, and put you in rehab for the fourth time. And it surely was my plan when I married Teddy and put you in rehab for the fifth time. But something always drew us back into each other's orbit. Why not this time?"

He shrugged. "I don't know."

She frowned. "Well, try hard to remember. We were practically holding on by a thread those couple years before Maddie turned eighteen and then it was like there was no reason to anymore."

He raised his eyebrows. "There wasn't, Rayna," he said, sounding exasperated. "I mean, you went off and had that big life, and there just wasn't nothing I could relate to about that, you know? You were someone I didn't even _know_ anymore."

She felt her breath catch. "Really?"

He nodded, his hands on his hips. "Really. You know, you said something about how the music was the important thing, but it didn't seem like that after a while for you. I didn't hear nothing in your songs that was your truth, Rayna. That was something I could always count on, whether me and you were writing or you were writing on your own. You told your truth. But it was like you didn't have nothing to say no more but you still wrote. I didn't hear _you_ anymore."

She felt a little like she'd been kicked in the gut. She'd had two more multi-platinum albums after she'd married Luke, two more sold out arena solo tours – in addition to the tours with Luke – and a handful of radio number ones. But when she thought about it, the music she was putting out then didn't feel authentic to her. It was good and it played well on the radio and her fans loved it, but Deacon was right. It was words and melodies and not much else.

She had no idea what to say to that. After a moment, she walked over and picked up her purse and headed for the door. "Just send me your half," she said, not even looking back at him, and walked out onto the porch, the door closing behind her. She stood for a moment, trying not to break down, breathing in and out. When she'd regained her control, she headed down the steps and out to her car. Then she sped down the street, not looking back.

 **Deacon**

After she walked out, he stood there for a long time, just staring at the door. Maybe it had just been too many years and they'd gotten too used to the silence. He thought about what she'd said. _I wanted us to, I don't know, be friends, be family. Be able to care about each other and want the best for each other and still be able to talk to each other._ He'd always just assumed it would be that way too. And then it wasn't. She'd been annoyed that night she came over to try to explain, yet again, about that _Rolling Stone_ article, when she walked away from him, and he hadn't seen her again before the wedding. Afterwards they would mostly hand off Maddie with just brief, stilted conversations. Maybe because Maddie was old enough that there didn't need to be a lot of those parenting conversations about after school activities or doctor appointments or homework assignments. Or all those other things the two of them had never actually had conversations about, because he hadn't known Maddie was his daughter until they were past that stage.

He felt that old anger and resentment build up and he clenched his fists. He didn't understand her anymore. Felt like he hadn't since the day it seemed like she'd washed her hands of him once and for all. He guessed he'd thought, somehow, it was a romantic gesture, back then, telling her he would never stop loving her. In the moment, he'd felt strong, like it was something she'd respond to. As she walked away, all he'd felt was foolish. She hadn't responded the way he'd thought she would, the way he'd hoped she would. It felt like he'd done all that work, to rebuild his life and her trust in him, for nothing.

He slumped down on the couch, closing his eyes. It was why he'd married Jessie Caine, all those years ago. He'd needed to feel like someone was counting on him, that someone needed him. Rayna sure didn't. Hadn't for years, truth be told. She'd lied to him and humiliated him and then walked away. It had hurt like hell and taken a while to get past. So he'd found someone who was the complete opposite of her. Only that hadn't worked either. It hadn't been fair to Jessie and it hadn't been fair to him.

He didn't want to tell Rayna he'd stayed away on purpose. He couldn't watch her, married to Luke, that big diamond ring mocking him, every time he'd seen her. It had torn his heart in two when she went ahead and married Luke. He remembered the day he'd been at the cabin and finally realized that as long as he lived in her shadow, he would never be able to get over her and build his own life. So he'd made a promise to himself that as soon as Maddie was eighteen, he'd do just that.

He would have thought twelve years of not seeing her, not talking to her, would have done the trick. That the next time he did see her, he wouldn't have realized that he'd made all that effort for nothing. Because the minute he laid eyes on her that day in the coffee shop, he knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that she was still the love of his life.

He just didn't know what to do with that.

 **Rayna**

She fought the tears in her eyes that still threatened even as she headed towards Woodland St. How had they ended up like this, she wondered. They really hadn't spoken to each other in more than a decade and it somehow had become their normal, so much so that, when they had finally spoken to each other, all they could do was accuse and hurt and wound.

The truth was she _had_ thought about him. Hundreds of times over the last fifteen years. It was exactly as she'd told him. So many times her first thought was to tell him – about an artist she'd signed or a song she'd seen that she loved. Every time she sang at the Opry, and sang one of her old standards, she thought of him, because most of the time it was a song they had written together. It just seemed impossible that they had been so connected for so long and now that string seemed irretrievably broken. _How did that happen?_

The thing she had realized, eventually, was that she had been afraid to take the risk with Deacon. When he had asked her to marry him that night, in her kitchen, after she'd agreed to marry Luke, she'd felt so many different emotions. There had been some anger that he'd done it at all, especially then. There had been uncertainty, when she had weighed the pros and cons of both. But mostly there had been deep sorrow, that something always seemed to stand in their way. Whether it was rehab or a dark secret or a painful reveal, the gods seemed determined to keep them apart. But then she'd had to consider it wasn't the gods conspiring at all – it was her unwillingness to risk it all for love.

She had never not loved Deacon Claybourne, that was still true. There had been some times when that love had been covered over by other emotions, but he was her soulmate, in a way that went far beyond just romantic feelings. She had never been able to truly let him go, even when she had thought she wanted to. Even when she'd had every right to. She had told him he knew her better than anyone else and that was true. He knew the deepest, darkest places inside of her, her biggest fears and her secret dreams. He understood her in a way no one else ever had, understood what she was thinking even when she couldn't put it into words herself. He heard the things she said, even when she didn't say them out loud. They had a connection which meant he'd always known when she needed someone. When she'd needed _him_. Even if she didn't say so.

She'd felt like they'd lost that, that she'd lost him, but she had to consider his words. _It was like you didn't have nothing to say no more but you still wrote. I didn't hear_ _you_ _anymore._ He was right. What he didn't realize – or maybe didn't _want_ to realize – was that he still was her touchstone. He could still see and hear through her bullshit, right to the core, right to the raw truth. She hadn't lost him and he hadn't lost her. They'd left each other. Consciously left each other. But somehow, this time, they'd seemed to make it permanent.

A sob escaped her mouth, almost without her being aware of it. He was still the love of her life. She just didn't know what to do about it.

 **Maddie**

"Mom! What in the hell did you say to Dad?" She felt so angry and hurt, that this close to her wedding she was going to have to navigate this ridiculous feud between her parents. Except it hadn't exactly been a _feud_ , since they had never been around each other to actually feud. But this distance, this apparent desire on both their parts to basically erase the other from their lives and their history, that was _killing_ her.

"I don't know what you're talking about, Maddie," Rayna said, not sounding exactly like she didn't know.

"You _do_ know! God, Mom, he's not going to come to the party. And he'll stand up with me, but then he's leaving. What happened?" She could feel the tears in her eyes. Tyler had told her to wait, to let herself calm down before she called her mom, but she couldn't. She was shaking, literally shaking, as she waited.

"What do you mean he's not coming? He never said that to me. There was never any discussion about that." Maddie had to admit it did sound like her mom was surprised by that bit of news.

"Well, he's not. And he said it just wasn't going to work out. That it was best that he not come."

"Did he say it was because of something I said?"

"He didn't have to. God, Mom, you know I've been waiting for this for so long. My wedding day and I wanted it to be perfect. To have both my parents be there, in the same place, for once. Why can you not do that for me?"

"It sounds like it's your father who's making those decisions, Maddie," her mom said, sounding a little exasperated. "Why aren't you talking to him about this?"

"I did! I talked to him until I was blue in the face. I even cried. But nothing worked. You know how he is. You know how stubborn and mule headed he can be. Why did you have to push his buttons?" She was practically crying again, thinking about how intractable he'd been. He had literally turned away from her and walked off. Stalked off, really. "What did you two talk about?"

"He didn't tell you?"

"No, of course he didn't tell me. I wouldn't be asking _you_ if he had."

Her mom was silent on the other end and then Maddie heard her sigh. "I don't know how we ended up talking about the past, but we did. Luke and Jessie and all that _stuff_ that went on back then. I think he's still angry with me, Maddie. Hurt." She was silent again for a moment, then said, "I guess old pain hasn't really healed. For either of us." She paused. "Was he in love with Jessie?"

"What? Are you kidding me? Why is that even important now?"

"It's not. Or maybe it is. I don't know, Maddie, but was he?"

Maddie rolled her eyes. "She was not you, Mom. That was it. She was sweet but she had a lot of baggage. A _lot_. But she wasn't you or, I guess, it was more that she wasn't _like_ you. He could take care of her or at least he thought he could." She sighed as she thought back on that period of her dad's life. "I really think he was more in love with the idea of being the strong one, the one who did the taking care of, than he was actually in love with _her_. And she was sort of neurotic. Understandably, I guess, based on what she went through, but she couldn't stand on her own, Mom. I don't know why, but she always _needed_ somebody to save her. From _everything_. It wasn't good and it wasn't healthy, for either one of them." She felt a lump in her throat. "I think he was trying to forget you by finding someone who was the opposite of you," she said quietly. "And when that didn't work, he just gave up entirely. It's why he never ventured into that space again."

There was a long silence on the other end. "Oh, Maddie," her mom said finally, and Maddie could hear the realization and regret in her voice.

 **Rayna**

She sat in her car for thirty minutes. She looked out the side window at his house, the lights glowing in the windows. She wondered what he was doing right then. It hurt her heart to realize she no longer knew what might occupy his time. She knew he still wrote songs, because occasionally one would come across her desk as a possible cut or single for one of her artists. They were always good and, if it was a good fit, she would always put it on hold. Every time it happened, she would wonder what he thought, but she never asked and he never had volunteered.

She remembered when she had lived in his house. It had been _their_ house, for years. They had rented it first, then talked the landlord into selling it to them, cheap. It was back in the days when East Nashville was the wrong side of the tracks and most of the houses were rundown and, if they were occupied, were lived in by renters. She had loved that house, loved taking care of it, loved coming home to it after months on the road, loved building that home with Deacon. So many of their best songs had been written on the living room floor, finished in their bed.

She had hated to leave it, but she'd been so broken down by his alcoholism and what it had done to them, to him. She was tired of dragging him out of bars and hotel rooms, tracking him down in hospitals and jail cells, covering for him all the time. He had disappointed her more times than she could remember and caused her immeasurable pain, of the emotional kind. It had killed her to send him to rehab and then go back to that house and pack up everything she owned. It had killed her to watch him spiral out of control before her very eyes, the day she'd gone to tell him they were going to have a baby.

They had eventually figured out how to coexist. They had learned to be friends, even though they both knew those old feelings were just lurking around the edges. Except that when they were finally in a place where they could act on them, the old dark secrets had risen up and destroyed them yet again. Eventually he'd forgiven her and she'd forgiven herself and accepted ownership for what had happened, but it hadn't changed the thing he'd certainly wanted most and that she had been afraid to try again.

She finally made herself get out of the car, slowly making her way across the street and then up the steps to the porch of his house. She stood there for a few minutes, the yellow glow beckoning, in spite of the butterflies in her stomach. Finally she reached out and knocked. It took a moment before the door opened and there he stood, a surprised look on his face.

She opened her mouth, but nothing came out at first. She just stared at him. He frowned slightly. "What's up, Rayna?" he asked, his voice quiet.

She opened her mouth again, then closed it, then took a deep breath. "I still love you," she said. She was conscious of the fact that this was so eerily reminiscent of the night she had bailed on Liam and ended up here. "Maybe it doesn't matter anymore, but I thought I needed to own my mistake." She couldn't figure out what he was thinking. She wondered if he would slam the door in her face or tell her she was too late or laugh in her face. The silence between them stretched out as she twisted her hands in front of her and he just stared at her. "Deacon," she said finally.

He reached out then and took her hand and pulled her inside.

 **Deacon**

Maddie had been furious when he'd told her he'd help pay for the party, but he didn't think he could be there, that doing it with Rayna was just not really working out. She had badgered him for a reason and begged him to reconsider. He'd finally had to tell her to stop asking and then he'd walked away.

The truth was that he wasn't sure he could do this without telling Rayna how he felt. How he'd always felt. He'd finally been successful in putting her aside. They didn't cross paths and he hadn't invented reasons to see her, nor had she created reasons to see him. Over time, it became the norm _not_ to see her, instead of the other way around. But he would still think about her – on her favorite holidays or on her birthday or Maddie's birthday. At the first snow or when he saw daisies for the first time in the spring. Their songs weren't on the radio much anymore, unless it was on WSM, and even then not often, but he would think about her then.

She'd put some of his songs on hold for her artists and he would wonder about that, whether she was expecting him to say something. But he never did. It was rewarding to hear his songs on the radio, even if they were being sung by other artists. Highway 65 wasn't the only label that used his songs, but they were the only ones that made him stop and think of her.

She had told him it was over, that they both needed to move on. She seemed like she had. He'd had no reason not to think so. Until these last few days, talking about Maddie's wedding. Actually, they'd done very little talking about Maddie's wedding. They had mostly talked about themselves and then, when they'd talked a little about each other, he'd pushed her away. He didn't think he could survive it one more time.

* * *

When he got home, he did what he so often did, which was to pull out his notebook and his guitar and start to write. It had always been this way for him – when the memories got too close or too painful, he'd write. In less than two hours, he'd knocked out a song, and as he looked at it, he was reminded of something she'd said about his songs years earlier. _Maybe they were all about me, or something._ It was less true these days, since she'd been gone from his life, but it _was_ true that his best songs were always about Rayna Jaymes.

Just then there was a knock at his door. He closed his eyes, rubbing one hand over his face. He hoped it wasn't Maddie. He didn't have the energy to fight with her anymore. He breathed out, then set his guitar aside, and got up, walking to the door.

He did not expect to see Rayna standing there. At first she just stared at him. He shifted from one foot to the other. "What's up, Rayna?" he asked.

She stared a moment longer. "I still love you," she said. And then everything seemed to be out of focus. It was like déjà vu. He flashed back to standing on this same porch, more than fifteen years ago, when she was standing in front of him. _I love you. That's just never not been true._ Was he hallucinating? Was he really asleep and just having a dream? _Is this real?_ "Deacon," she said.

He reached out and grabbed her hand, pulling her into his house.

 **Rayna**

He looked at her, a wild kind of look in his eyes, breathing slowly in and out. Then he furrowed his brow a bit. "What did you say?" he whispered.

"I love you," she said.

He shook his head. "No. After that. What did you say?"

She swallowed hard. "I made a mistake." She felt tears in her eyes and then felt them start to roll down her cheeks. "I said yes to Luke…because I didn't want the pain." She could hear her voice shaking.

He breathed in deeply and his eyes took on a deep sadness. "I never meant to cause you pain."

She nodded. "I know. But I thought, you know, I thought I needed peace in my life." She twisted her hands together. "I can't believe I did this again. That I made the same choice I made with Teddy. Because I thought safe was better."

She saw the tears in his eyes and then he looked away, biting his lip for a moment. "I can't do this again, Rayna. You done broke my heart so many times."

She grabbed his arm and he looked at her then. "I know I have. And I'm sorry. I'm sorry for all this time we wasted. Again. I'm sorry that I did that to you, to us. I just keep making the same mistakes, over and over. I keep denying to myself what I know is true."

He wiped at the tears on his face with the heel of his hand. "And what's that?"

"I've loved you since I was sixteen years old. Through everything, the good and the bad. But I kept telling myself we were no good for each other. That all we did was hurt each other and cause each other pain. And that if I could just stay away from you, I wouldn't have that pain. But you know what? It didn't work. I really never stopped thinking about you, loving you. I told myself I didn't, but that wasn't true."

She could see the tears still rimming his eyes. "I kinda died inside, Rayna, that last time. I had to shut down, you know?" He took a deep breath. "I mean, I waited, God, I waited for _years_ for you. I put everything to the side to wait for you. And you just…walked away, like it didn't mean nothing. You gave us away to a magazine and then you just gave _us_ away." He put his hands in his pockets and turned away. "I remember feeling kinda like I was frozen, you know? Like my heart done gone to ice."

She swallowed hard. Her heart felt ripped in two, listening to his pain. "But you got married," she said softly.

He turned to face her, his brow knitted in a hard frown. "I couldn't give her what she needed," he practically shouted. "I was dead inside, Rayna. Don't you get it?"

It was her turn to look away. "I'm so sorry," she whispered, her heart breaking, unable to stop her tears. She crossed her arms over her chest. "Does this mean we can't ever get past it? Fix it?"

He cleared his throat. "I wanna trust you, Rayna. I do. I mean, for as long as I can remember, you were my family." She turned back to look at him then. "I feel kinda like maybe you felt. Like I don't want that pain no more." He chewed his lip for a moment. "You can't just come in here and tell me you love me and think it all goes back to how it was. There was real damage done."

She nodded. "I understand." She put one hand over her heart. "I just have such a huge hole in my heart." She wiped the tears from her face. "I guess I'm the one who has to live with that now." She felt the tears coming again and breathed in deeply, trying to stave them off. "I guess I'll go. I'm just so sorry. And I know that's not enough, but it's all I've got." She picked up her purse and walked to the door slowly, hoping against hope that he'd call her back. But she got to the door and he still had said nothing and she felt her heart sink. She opened the door and stepped out on the porch, letting the door shut behind her, feeling devastated.

 **Deacon**

When he heard the click of the door closing, something broke inside him. He walked quickly to the door and opened it. She was standing on the top step and turned back to look at him. It felt again, for a second, like the world had stopped, like everything around them had disappeared. Then he took a step forward and she turned all the way back and walked into his arms, and he kissed her with all the pent up feelings he'd kept locked away for the past fifteen years.

He pulled his lips from hers. "We shouldn't do this," he murmured. But he wanted to and so he kissed her again. He felt her fingers on the back of his neck and then threading the hair on the back of his neck. He grabbed a handful of her hair and scrunched it in his hand as he pulled her closer. He had forgotten how her lips felt, how her mouth tasted, the touch of her tongue against his, but it came back almost instantly, the same as the feel of her curves and the way she liked to press against him.

In the very back of his mind, he thought this might not be a very good idea, but he banished the thought as quickly as it arose. He dragged his mouth from hers and, taking her hand, pulled her back into his house and into his bedroom. He quickly unbuttoned her blouse and pulled it from the waistband of her jeans. He pushed it off her shoulders and onto the floor. She unbuttoned his shirt, pushing it away from his chest, then leaned in and pressed her lips against his skin. He could barely breathe.

He reached behind her and unfastened her bra, letting her breasts spring free. He ran his thumbs over her nipples and she sucked in her breath. Then he let his hands slide down to her waist and he pulled off her belt and unzipped her jeans. He used his index fingers to push both her jeans and panties down, while she returned the favor. They had to stop so they could remove shoes and finish undressing and then he pushed her gently down onto the bed and crawled in after her.

She reached for him, pulling him to her, and he kissed her again, their tongues battling fiercely, their hands exploring each other, finding that familiarity again. And then, like muscle memory, he was inside her, and his eyes filled with tears. "I love you, Rayna," he growled against her lips.

"I love you, Deacon," she whispered back.

 **Rayna**

Much, much later, she was laying on her side, facing him, running her fingers through the hair across his forehead. His hand was on the small of her back, holding her close. She let her fingers slide down to his beard and she scratched at it gently, smiling just a little. "You let your scruff grow," she said, hearing the laziness born of a night of lovemaking.

He smiled back, his eyes crinkling at the edges. "Been this way for years," he said, dragging his fingers up her back. He leaned in and brushed his lips against hers. "It bother you?"

She shook her head. "It's softer this way, actually." She thought about how it had felt against the inside of her thighs and she could feel herself blush. He moved his hand to her face and she knew he'd seen it. She closed her eyes and turned her face slightly into his hand. "I'd almost forgotten how this felt," she said.

He breathed in. "I know."

She looked back at him, searching his face, hoping to find what he was thinking now. But it seemed he'd developed a guardedness and she wasn't sure if that was because of her or something else, but she wasn't sure what to make of it. "Are you sorry we did this?"

He closed his eyes for a second, then looked back at her. "Maybe I should be, but I ain't," he said. He lifted his hand and brushed the hair back off her face, raising his glance as he did. Then he pressed his palm against the side of her face and looked back in her eyes. "I guess I'm just wondering why we done this again. And are we gonna keep doing it."

She bit down on her lip. "I want to. Keep doing it, that is. And I think we did it because, well, it was just inevitable." She sighed. "Let's not keep making the same mistakes over and over, Deacon. Let's not mess this up again." She searched his face again and thought she saw a softening in his eyes. "None of this lasts forever, you know, and we've wasted so much time already. I just want to make the most of whatever's left."

He leaned in and kissed her. "How're we gonna make sure we don't just muck it up again?"

She smiled. "I've got an idea," she said.

 **Deacon**

He walked out onto the deck that overlooked the ocean and squinted into the sunlight. "Why's it always so damn bright out here?" he grumbled.

Rayna looked over at him from where she was standing, finishing up with the catering staff. "I think it's because there's just nothing else to break it up," she said, with a smile. She looked back at the woman she was speaking with. "So, everything will be set up by eight-thirty?"

The woman nodded. "Yes, ma'am. And everything is being circulated, so your guests can all mingle freely."

"Champagne?"

"We'll have two servers for that, along with sparking water for those who don't want champagne."

Rayna smiled. "Perfect. Thank you so much!"

"You are very welcome. I think it will all be lovely." She turned and walked back into the hotel and Rayna walked over to where he was standing, leaning against the railing.

He watched her as she approached. She looked relaxed and pleased with herself. Truthfully, the party had been easy to set up. There were only about twenty-five people scheduled to come, so it would be a nice, intimate affair. She was wearing jeans and a tank top, showing off her still trim figure and well-defined arms. "All set?" he asked, with a smile.

She stood next to him, leaning on the railing as well. "Yep. Now we just wait until eight-thirty."

"Mom! Dad!" They both turned to see Maddie briskly walking out onto the deck. When she reached them, she gave them both a hug. "Everything set?"

Rayna nodded. "Just did a check in and we're all good." She smiled at her daughter and reached out to push a strand of her hair back. "Are you excited?"

Maddie nodded. "I am. I can't believe this is finally happening." She grinned at both of them. "I'm just glad everything worked out." She turned to look at him. "Did you decide if you were going to go barefoot tomorrow or not?" she asked.

He smirked at her. "I ain't deciding nothing til the last minute." He pulled her into a hug. "I'm so happy for you, baby," he said and felt tears in his eyes.

Maddie pulled back and looked at him. "Dad, you can't cry," she said, with a little quiver in her voice.

He breathed in and tried smiling. "Your mom keeps telling me the same thing. I'll try not to embarrass you."

Rayna rubbed his arm. "It's a big day. If there are a few tears, it's okay. They're happy tears," she said, with a smile.

Maddie reached for his hand and then Rayna's. "I'm just glad you two worked everything out and are both here. Together." Then she laughed. "I just never expected you'd beat me to the altar."

He looked at Rayna and smiled, then back at their daughter. "Well, you know how your mom just had this idea…."

 **THE END**

 _I kissed your tears all falling down / I said baby, you'll always be the one / Aw I'm never going to turn around / You're all the life that I have in these lungs_


End file.
